Priam (Pri′am). The last king of Troy. See Paris.
Priapus (Pria′pus), the guardian of gardens and god of natural reproduction, was the son of Venus and Bacchus.
“Priapus could not half describe the grace
(Though god of gardens) of this charming place.”
Pope.
Prisca (Pris′ca). Another name of Vesta.
Procris (Pro′cris). Daughter of Erechtheus, king of Athens. See Cephalus, her husband.
Progne (Prog′ne), wife of Tereus. Commonly called Procne, whose sister was Philomela. See Itys and Tereus.
“Complaining oft gives respite to our grief,
From hence the wretched Progne sought relief.”
F. Lewis.
Prometheus (Prome′theus), the son of Japetus and father of Deucalion. He presumed to make clay men, and animate them with fire which he had stolen from heaven. This so displeased Jupiter that he sent him a box full of evils, which Prometheus refused; but his brother Epimetheus, not so cautious, opened it, and the evils spread over all the earth. Jupiter then punished Prometheus by commanding Mercury to bind him to Mount Caucasus, where a vulture daily preyed upon his liver, which grew in the night as much as it had been reduced in the day, so that the punishment was a prolonged torture. Hercules at last killed the vulture and set Prometheus free.
Prophecy, see Nereus.
Proserpine (Proser′pine). A daughter of Jupiter and Ceres. Pluto carried her off to the infernal regions and made her his wife. She was known by the names of “the Queen of Hell,” Hecate, Juno Inferna, and Libitina. She was called by the Greeks Persephone.